Rector Luc Sels sustains a kidney rupture during a mission in Australia: “I crawled through the eye of the needle” (Leuven)

Rector of KU Leuven Luc Sels is not allowed to return home from a mission in Australia for at least two weeks after he suffered a kidney rupture. He is currently being treated in a hospital in Melbourne.

The Leuven rector, together with Princess Astrid and Minister Matthias Diependaele (N-VA), among others, was on an economic mission to Australia last week. He closed another one on Friday cooperation agreement with the University of Melbourne. “But not much later, a nasty fall put an end to a beautiful day,” the rector writes in a post on LinkedIn. “Internal bleeding was the result.”

According to Sels himself, he crawled through the eye of the needle. “These were stressful moments,” he says. “The verdict is a rupture in the left kidney.” The rector was transferred to the Royal Melbourne Hospital, a hospital affiliated with the university with which he had just signed a partnership. “The local team of doctor Fairleigh Reeves, in consultation with Professor Wouter Everaerts of UZ Leuven, did everything to save the kidney. That worked.”

No-fly zone

However, the injuries are too serious to take the plane home. For the time being, he is banned from flying for at least two weeks. As soon as his situation allows him to work, the rector plans to do so. He will be provided with an office at the University of Melbourne for this purpose.